Irene Taylor, Sterlin Harjo among 2024 Cinema Unbound Award honorees (2024)

A group of creative talents whose work includes documentaries, comedy, visual art, and opening some of Portland’s most acclaimed restaurants, will be honored at the 2024 Portland Art Museum’s PAM CUT//Center for an Untold Tomorrow fifth annual Cinema Unbound Awards.

The Cinema Unbound Awards, which will be presented in a ceremony on June 21, celebrate creators who, as the press material for this year’s honorees says, “use their vision to challenge for whom, by whom, and how stories can be told.”

The 2024 group includes Portland-based talent, such as documentary filmmaker Irene Taylor, as well as artists who are based elsewhere but whose work has had a widespread impact, such as Sterlin Harjo, the co-creator of the groundbreaking TV series, “Reservation Dogs.”

This year’s Cinema Unbound Awards ceremony will be hosted by Ron Funches, the comedian, writer and actor lived in Oregon and was one of Portland’s top stand-up comics before moving to Los Angeles to gain fame for roles in the Apple TV+ comedy, “Loot,” HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and as a busy voice actor in the “Trolls” features, among many other credits.

In addition to Taylor and Harjo, the honorees are Mickalene Thomas, and chef/entrepreneurs Peter Cho and Sun Young Park.

According to the press materials, Thomas has a connection to Portland going back to 1994, when she visited the Portland Art Museum. Thomas was struck by photographs taken by the artist Carrie Mae Weems, specifically Weems’ “Kitchen Table” series. Thomas remembered the experience in an interview with Vogue magazine, saying it was transformative, “not only to me as a young Black girl from Camden, New Jersey, standing in a museum in Portland, Oregon, but as a queer woman, as a young artist, seeing those works—they changed my life and allowed me to really consider being an artist. My journey began the moment I walked into that museum.”

A multidisciplinary artist who work in painting, photographs, films and installations, Thomas is also a curator, educator and mentor. She has won numerous awards, and honors, and her work is included in the collections of such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art, in New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Studio Museum of Harlem, in New York; the International Center of Photography, in New York; the National Gallery of Art, in Washington D.C.; the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington D.C.; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York; and the J. Paul Getty Museum, in Los Angeles.

In a statement, Thomas said, in part, “I am absolutely thrilled to be an honoree for the Cinema Unbound Awards. It’s an incredible privilege to be recognized by the Portland Art Museum’s Center for an Untold Tomorrow (PAM CUT) for my work in expanding the reach of storytelling and amplifying voices like mine.”

Taylor, who lives in Portland, has been nominated for an Oscar and won Emmy, Peabody and other awards for her documentaries, which include very personal works and investigative films. Past projects include “Hear and Now,” about her parents’ experience with being deaf; an exploration of scandals associated with the Boy Scouts of America, called “Leave No Trace: A Hidden History of the Boy Scouts”; “Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements,” which interwove stories of her deaf father, her deaf son, and the composer Ludwig Van Beethoven; and “Trees and Other Entanglements,” a sensitive look at people with a passion for trees and a poetic consideration of mortality. Her newest film, “I AM: Celine Dion,” about the singer, will stream on Prime Video on June 25.

“When I moved from Manhattan to Portland 22 years ago, the folks at the Northwest Film Center (now PAM CUT) welcomed me to town with their slate of rad films from all over the world, all year long,” Taylor said in a statement, adding working with the museum’s film program has made her realize “why I have never looked back and why Portland has become, and will always be, my home. To now receive the Cinema Unbound Award from this long lineage of idea-makers is a distinct honor.”

Harjo’s Oregon connection dates from when he performed at the Portland Art Museum in 2016 as a member of the 1491s, a sketch comedy group that explored contemporary Native American life in the United States. The group was also commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, along with New Native Theatre, to write a play for the festival’s American Revolutions series of new plays about US history.

In his career, Harjo has directed feature films, shorts, and was co-creator and showrunner for the FX series, “Reservation Dogs,” which won critical praise for its blend of comedy and drama and fresh portrayal of Native life in a community in Oklahoma. The Peabody Award-winning “Reservation Dogs” was also notable for the Indigenous creatives who wrote, directed and acted in the series.

Portland chef/entrepreneurs Peter Cho and Sun Young Park will “construct a full culinary takeover of the night,” according to press materials. The James Beard Foundation Award nominees have won national and regional praise for Portland restaurants, including Han Oak, and Jeju.

The husband and wife team honor their Korean heritage with their establishments, and, along with their sons, have been supporters of local arms, creatives, charitable organizations and more.

In a joint statement, the duo said, “The relentless business of food often overshadows the profoundly meaningful connections that can only be shared through the language of food. We are honored and grateful to Cinema Unbound for this recognition, for tasting our stories as we attempt to dish it, shared by our team with collective fluency, a visceral and soulful language that breaks all language barriers, and really knows no bounds.”

The 2024 Cinema Unbound Awards ceremony is scheduled for June 21, and will take place at the Portland Art Museum’s Kridel Grand Ballroom. Proceeds from the event benefit PAM CUT programs, artist services and exhibitions.

Past honorees have included Guillermo del Toro, Carrie Brownstein, Steve McQueen, Fred Armisen, Jacqueline Stewart, Jon Raymond, Gus Van Sant, Todd Haynes, and many more.

— Kristi Turnquist covers features and entertainment. Reach her at 503-221-8227, kturnquist@oregonian.com or @Kristiturnquist

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